Sunday, 31 May 2015

Ecclesiastical solipsism...

In his book The Heresy of Formlessness Martin Mosebach writes affectionately of his childhood experience of the LORD's Day. His Catholic mother would listen out for the church bells summoning the people to Mass; she would then wait a while, listen out for another bell, wait again, and then set off so as to successfully avoid hearing the sermon. Meanwhile his Lutheran father, comfortable in his own priesthood, would retrieve a handsomely bound German Bible and concordance and read the appointed passages for the day which were, for the most part, identical with the cycle then used by the Roman church. I think I have settled for this latter kind of Christian faith. I don't like being outside and I certainly resent having to travel over twenty miles into London (Babylon the Great) every Sunday to an overcrowded church full of ethnic Slavs. The men look like orcs! And to what purpose? Is my commute a kind of personal via dolorosa? Do I gain merit with the Most High by choosing Sourozh over ROCOR? I have often accused Roman Catholic traditionalists of a kind of spiritual triumphalism in many of their beliefs and practices but for someone like me there is really no moral difference between that kind of triumphalism and the personal via dolorosa I have just mentioned. To feel any kind of satisfaction on Sundays for having attended a particular kind of service at a particular kind of church must surely be a sin.

12 comments:

Have you browsed the website "Betrayed Catholics" yet? The author's practice reminds me a little of what you describe. She calls it "Catacomb Catholicism", basically advocating for Roman "Bezpopovtsy" (and she too is very hard on "Traditional Catholics").

Having looked at this woman's website in more detail, I can say that she has some insight into the problems of contemporary Romanism but is, sadly, herself stuck within the webs of Romish deceit. I doubt I'll look at her stuff again.

Well, if by Anglo-Catholicism you mean a camp lace brigade with a portrait of the reigning pope in the sacristy then, yes that is unacceptable. I would have given high church Anglicanism some consideration, if there were any serious practitioners of that style in the Church of England, but I cannot partake of sacraments in a church that permits women's ordination and in which you can say, do and believe anything you want. I saw a "Big Questions" episode yestermorn in which an Anglican priest said he didn't even believe in a transcendental force let alone a personal God. What do these people believe?

It doesn't matter what kind of churchmanship you practise in the Church of England, it is all a fantasy.

Patricius, there is always the Anglican Catholic Church, to which our common friend, Fr Anthony belongs. Although it is a very small Church lacking funds, buildings, and even social standing (things that in England the Byzantines do have...well so long as they keep smiling periodically in the direction of the established Church), they still continue to offer the old Mass and to believe and practice the Old Faith as well. But just as importantly, the tradition of the Anglican Catholic Church is our common heritage, unlike swimming the Neva, where one will always be a foreigner and actually told that our traditions are nothing more than baggage that must be thrown away and if one is not of the acceptable ethnic background, one is expected to perpetually shut-up and listen to one's ethnic betters.

Patricius, the Byzantines also elevate the agnezt (Host) and chalice as well, just after the Words of Institution, and before the Epiclesis (theologically in the same position as in our tradition). One does not always notice that it is done, especially in the Russian tradition, because the doors are closed and people are unaware of the elevation. So, perhaps you should quite attending the Orthodox liturgy as well?

But Patrick, you have not dealt with the real issue, which is the elevations in the Liturgy, which exist in both east and west; and for which you seem to have a problem (but only in the Latin tradition?). Also, the Byzantine tradition has processions of the Blessed Sacrament as well.

This tends to be rank Protestantism; what do we do in church, keep our eyes closed? Patrick, this is so childish that it almost boggles the mind. We do not "gaze" at the Sacrament, we worship Christ who has given us not only our Salvation, but his very body and blood for our salvation. The next thing you will be saying is that we should not have the Eucharist at all, well because, well, people might gaze at the Host? This was the finally conclusion of those who posited such drivel as you are repeating here.